Mao Was Cruel – But Also Laid the Ground for Today’s China – Will Hutton

From the Guardian:

The crimes of communist China’s founder shouldn’t blind us to achievements which paved the way for its current modernisation.

Nobody wants to be an apologist for Mao. Even the Communist party, five years after his death, delivered the verdict that his crimes during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution meant that he had been 30% wrong. Mao was undoubtedly responsible for monstrous crimes, but if today’s China ever completes the transition to a more plural economy and society it will be more obvious than ever that he was the man who partially laid the platform for today’s China. And from this may one day emerge a country with the liberties of the rest of Asia and the west.[Full Text]